#but also that darcy completely sees through it and just says so (then and implicitly later on)

[anghraine]

I love that Elizabeth and Darcy are so ready to effectively tell each other they're full of shit. This happens a bunch of times, but I was re-reading their conversation at the Netherfield Ball and they're both kind of refreshingly Done.

[Darcy:] “Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?” [Elizabeth:] “Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together; and yet, for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible.” [Darcy:] “Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying mine?” “Both,” replied Elizabeth archly; “for I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds. We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb.” “This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am sure,” said he.

It's also pretty funny, because I suspect Darcy is thinking of this sort of thing in a later conversation at Rosings:

“You mean to frighten me, Mr Darcy, by coming in all this state to hear me. But I will not be alarmed, though your sister does play so well. There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises with every attempt to intimidate me.” “I shall not say that you are mistaken,” he replied, “because you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know, that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which, in fact, are not your own.”

#i love elizabeth cloaking what is obviously a specific personal insult in ostensible solidarity that is in fact the opposite of solidarity #but also that darcy completely sees through it and just says so (then and implicitly later on) #and later in the netherfield ball conversation #darcy actively warns her that she shouldn't form her opinion on him bc at the moment it won't reflect well on either of them #which he is completely correct about—yet he doesn't connect this w/ his assumptions about her encouraging him at all #then or later! #also i appreciate that no matter how many times they challenge each other through social mechanisms #it just never breaks through their mutual arrogance lmao #but it builds until they reach the point where they just drop the bullshit altogether and say exactly what they think and believe #and doing /that/ with each other is what catapults the other one onto their respective character arcs #(w/ the hunsford scene and darcy's letter) #anghraine babbles #long post #austen blogging #fitzwilliam darcy #elizabeth bennet #otp of otps #pride and prejudice #jane austen